ALDL and the Patent WAS Diacom Cable

[Eric Clark]

On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, David Cooley wrote:

> At 06:55 PM 11/30/99 -0700, you wrote:
> >Check OUT!!!
> >
> >http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?pn=US04796206__
> >
> >Inventor(s):
> >                      Boscove; Joseph A. , Highland Beach, FL
> >                      Kurtz; Hobart L. , Boca Raton, FL
> >                      Prince; Jeffrey E. , Birmingham, MI
> >                      Wiegand; William P. , Birmingham, MI
> 
> 
> Gee... Looks like Diacom, Snapon, Actron, AutoXray etc are all infringing 
> on a patent...
> So is GM (HP makes their scan tools), ford (Hickock makes their scantools) 
> and Chrysler (Not sure who makes their scantools).

GM would be able to overturn this patent because of "prior art".  They
would have to prove they were using ALDL before the patent was issued,
which wouldnt be too hard.

-Eric